OHIO
The Springfield Museum of Art will host an opening event for the Jack Earl: A Modern Master-A Retrospective exhibition featuring loans from the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Springfield, 10.3.

LOUISIANA
The Ogden Museum of Southern Art will host an opening for Art for Art’s Sake exhibition featuring loans from the National Postal Museum. Linda Edquist, conservator, will attend the opening in New Orleans, 10.6.

PENNSYLVANIA
The Senator John Heinz History Center will host an opening for Gridiron Glory: Best of the Pro Football Hall of Fame exhibition featuring loans from the National Museum of American History in Pittsburgh, 10.6.

The Historic Bethlehem Partnership will host Richard Kurin, Smithsonian Under Secretary for History, Art, and Culture, for a lecture program and book signing in Bethlehem, 10.14.

ILLINOIS
The Lakeview Museum of Arts & Sciences will open their new facility, the Peoria Riverfront Museum. Harold Closter and Aaron Glavas from Smithsonian Affiliations will be in attendance in Peoria, 10.11.

In 1988, the Smithsonian Early Enrichment Center was founded, in part, to demonstrate the tremendous learning potential of museums on very young children, and to share those lessons as broadly as possible. Dr. Sharon Shaffer, SEEC’s founding director, has grown the organization to three centers on the National Mall and an ambitious outreach program that has trained thousands of educators, including many Affiliates. Sharon has made an indelible mark on the Smithsonian community, enriching our understanding of early childhood education. She leaves big shoes to fill upon her retirement later this year.

SEEC's new executive director, Dr. Kimberlee Kiehl

In July, SEEC will welcome Dr. Kimberlee Kiehl, its new executive director. Kim currently serves as Chief Strategy and Operations Officer and Senior Vice President for the Center of Science and Industry in Columbus, Ohio. Of her many accomplishments at COSI, Kiehl was responsible for the physical and programmatic design of little kidspace®, a 12,000-square-foot “museum-within-a-museum” designed specifically for young children. She has also been a faculty member at Ohio State University, teaching early childhood education and development courses, and running the University’s laboratory school for children under 6. Kim earned her doctorate degree in education from Pennsylvania State University.

the new early childhood space at the B & O Railroad Museum

Affiliates have a long successful history of working with SEEC. The B & O Railroad Museum in Baltimore consulted with SEEC when developing their dedicated spaces for early learners. SEEC has conducted trainings and workshops for the Museum of Flight in Seattle, WA, the African American Museum in Philadelphia, the Ogden Museum of Southern Art in New Orleans, and the Ohr-O’Keefe Museum of Art in Biloxi, MS among others. In January 2012, four Affiliate representatives from the California Science Center, the Rubin Museum of Art in New York City, the Museum of Nature and Science in Dallas and the Miami Science Center all came to Washington, D.C. to participate in a planning session for a National Symposium on Early Learning in Museums, currently under development.

We look forward to continuing the Affiliate-SEEC collaboration for the benefit of our museums’ youngest visitors, in thanking Sharon for the foundations she has laid, and welcoming Kim as a new partner in education.

Look for SEEC at the Resource Fair at the Smithsonian Affiliations National Conference, June 12-14. And for more, check out the latest issue of the Journal of Museum Education, guest edited by Sharon Shaffer and focusing on early learning.

GEORGIA:Dr. David W. Penney, Associate Director for Museum Scholarship at the National Museum of the American Indian, will present a talk on historic Native American objects at the Southeastern Cowboy Festival at the Booth Western Art Museum in Cartersville, 10/21.